*Flushing Meadows – Serena Williams jumped over a major hurdle in the 2016 US Open last night – with a slew of her famous friends looking on: Odell Beckham, Queen Latifah, Pharrell Williams, Rick Fox, Fabulous, Draymond Green, Leon. And as she said previously, she especially likes to perform well when she has company.
Out of the gates, Serena had to face tricky Russian lefty, Ekaterina Makarova, a test she soundly passed, but in her quarter final match up, she had a much tougher opponent to battle: feisty Romanian Simon Halep.
Serena Williams led their head to head 7-1 going into the match, but the one contest she did lose against her was a near unprecedented drubbing, 0-6, 2-6, at the 2015 year-end finals. So, she knew Simona Halep had the tenacity to win if you give her an opening and it was important that she didn’t start slow and brought her best game.
Everything went according to plan through the first set, with Serena Williams taking it 6-2, but she gave up that “opening” in the second set.
The 35-year-old relaxed her game a little and Halep amped up the power on her serves and ground strokes going into the second. Serena wasn’t expecting the change and it caused the American to begin making more unforced errors. She surrendered her serve in the third game and, although she had plenty of chances to break back – one game lasting more than 10 minutes, she was unable to convert and recover. That said, after squandering a gaggle of break chances, she went on to lose that set 4-6.
It seemed like the wind had gone out of her sails, but she remained optimistic:
“You know, it’s happened to me in the past before,” she said of the lost break opportunities. “But like I said on the court, I just stay positive. I’m glad I had the break points as opposed to not having them. That’s the only thing I can do, and hopefully I can start getting more.”
She’s not a 22-time Grand Slam winner for nothing, though. As soon as the umpire called, “time,” to start the third, Serena Williams dug deep, tightened up her game and righted the ship. She wasn’t going to allow it to be another late-stage flop like it happened against Roberta Vinci in last year’s semifinal round.
She opened the deciding third set with more decisive play, holding her first service game for 1-0 and taking Simona Halep to deuce in hers … but two unforced errors allowed the Romanian to hold. It wasn’t for long though, because although she seemed uncharacteristically calm, Serena Williams was inwardly hell bent on taking control.
The pressure was on Simona Halep’s shoulders, being pushed in her first service game and knowing Serena has the big serve to help her when she’s in trouble. Consequently, the nimble Romanian was broken while serving at 1-2 and Serena never let off the gas after that. Halep was holding her own, taking care of her serve the rest of the way, but surrendering that early break in the set was a grave mistake when facing a great front runner like Serena Williams. They traded their way to 5-3, Serena’s lead and … she was in the zone at that point. She was only one game from the semis, so to close out the match, she loaded the cannon – her powerful serving arm – and served the match out with ease, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
In the end, it was a test, but one she passed – serving 18 aces, 50 winners and threw in a few drop shots – to live to fight another round.
“You know, I didn’t play the same match in the first set or in the second, and my third set was better than the second. So, I didn’t keep that level up,” she said. “…I glad I got tested. So, what I gather from that is I really could have played better in that second set and maybe had an opportunity to win in straights.”
She next faces Karolina Pliskova, the big-serving Czech who knocked her sister Venus Williams out of the tournament, in the semis. They’ll play in the first night match on Friday night.
“I haven’t played against many big servers recently, but she places her serve really well, I think,” she said of the match up. “Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to read them and play okay.”
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